This book was a sickly-sweet romance that embodied the spirit of Christmas.

In doing so, however, the characters ended up feeling flat with no real depth to them, especially Joy. The book was also short. The character growth, as a result, felt sudden and undeserved. The twist was the only part I found interesting. Luckily I knew there was one beforehand, as the only thing getting me through the first part was coming up with theories as to what it could be. Therefore, I found the second part, when the twist was revealed, to be much more interesting though the ending felt sudden and rushed. I do also think the 'season of forgiveness' message went too far in a certain aspect of the story.

Overall, this is a weirdly serious silly Christmas book with a slightly supernatural twist that, at least for me, made it decently enjoyable.

I like thrillers with interesting but believable twists and a likable and understandable main character. This book checked those boxes for me.

The audiobook was well done, especially the podcast elements. I thought the topic of domestic violence was handled well, and I liked how Lucy wasn't expected or forced to forgive the people who hurt her. The small-town dynamics played an interesting role in the story that I thought was well done, though not anything unseen.

This book hit just right as an audiobook that I listened to during my hour-long commute, I found myself wanting to sit in my car longer to hear what happened next!

DNF

I was really into this book in the beginning and was really enjoying Claire and Jamie as characters. However, this was ruined by the scene where Jamie beats Claire with a belt and the aftermath. I don’t want to go into detail but the fact that it is normalized as something that happens all the time in 18th century Scotland is not something I can accept or feel comfortable continuing reading, as this is on top of many other actions by men to women in this book that are just horrendous but accepted as normal.

Most of the book was a four star, but the last few chapters skyrocketed the rating to five.

This is a good book, though it is incredibly depressing. I'm not going to continue the series, however, as I can tell by the way this book went it's probably not going to have a happy or satisfying ending. While I'm sad because I enjoyed this book, I know I won't like the end, which makes it not worth it for me to continue.

If I could give this book 10 stars I would. I don’t know how to describe the emotions I feel after just finishing it, but it ended in such a beautiful and satisfactory way that I literally cried.

I’ve heard people raving about Brandon Sanderson in every fantasy genre community and I finally understand why, and I am so excited that while this story is wrapped up the rest of The Cosmere is still out there.

After struggling to get into the first book and stopping midway through the second before picking it up again, this book made it all worth it and made me appreciate the first two in a new way (though I did love them already after getting past my struggles).

I don’t know if I’ve ever loved a book as much as this.

3.5

I had a lot of fun with this book, but it just didn’t quite hit right for me. Lowe’s character and the reasoning behind his actions especially towards the end of the book just did not feel fleshed out enough to me, which made me frustrated with how the lead up to the climax played out. I also felt like the issues that led to the climax were too quickly resolved, and that both Lowe and Misery lacked a good character arc. I still enjoyed this book overall which is why it’s a 3.5.

4.5